Lebanese women march in support of international tribunal
Summary of story from arabnews 7.3.11
Hundreds of Lebanese women demonstrated at the weekend in Beirut in support of an international tribunal investigating the assassination of former premier Rafiq Al-Hariri.
The women, all backers of the liberal ‘March 14 Movement’ led by caretaker Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain premier, formed a human chain on Sunday stretching from Mr Hariri’s grave to the spot where his car exploded in February 2005, killing him and 22 others.
“The people want to drop the arms,” chanted the women, a takeoff on the pan-Arab call “the people want to topple the regime.”
The arms in question are those maintained by the Shiite Islamist movement Hezbollah, which has refused to give up their weapons, claiming they were legitimately used in their fight against Israel.
Hezbollah vociferously opposes the UN-commissioned Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) which is rumoured to have indicted senior members of the Islamic party for involvement in Hariri’s assassination.
One of the participants in the demonstration was May Chidiac, a Christian TV journalist and outspoken critic of Syria’s presence in Lebanon. She was severely injured in a 2005 blast, blamed on Syria, which severed her left arm and leg.
Ranya Ghanem, wife of slain politician Antoine Ghanem, told the the London-based Arab daily Al-Hayat that she was demonstrating to demand the exposure of “those who deprived us of our loved ones.”
